Nervous System/Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim & Moby. Tim, a man, reads a letter. TIM: Dear Tim & Moby, Why do we feel hot and cold? From, Jonathan. The signature of the letter indicates that it was submitted via the Internet. The video changes to show Tim and Moby standing side by side in a room in front of a window. Tim is wearing a white tee shirt with a graphic of a nerve cell on the shirt. The graphic starts with a small black dot surrounded by a dark blue oval shape. The blue oval is encircled with a dashed orange circle. Then, surrounding those items is a larger, light blue oval with several branches protruding from it like a spider or octopus. Moby pokes Tim in the side of the head. TIM: Ow! TIM: Jonathan, you can feel things like hot and cold, soft and sharp edges, and being poked in the head because of your nervous system. The nervous system is the control center for your entire body. It’s made up of your brain, your spinal cord, and a huge network of nerves. The video shows a dark-green background, and in the left foreground is a silhouette of a human body. A simple depiction of the inner nervous system is visible with distinct lines that run from the brain, down the spine, across the torso, and branch off to go down the length of the arms and legs. Smaller lines branch off of those lines. The brain and eyeballs are also visible. The label “brain” appears in the upper-right corner with a line extending to the brain on the silhouette. The label “spinal cord” appears to the right of the screen with a line extending to the top of the spinal cord on the neck of the silhouette. The label “nerves” appears on the lower-right area of the screen with a line extending to the thigh of the silhouette and pointing to the lines that branch off of the main line that is extending down the center of the leg. TIM: Your brain uses information it receives from your nerves to coordinate all of your actions and reactions. Without it, you’d be in big trouble! The video zooms in on the upper half of the silhouette. TIM: Your brain contains an intricate network of nerve cells or neurons that carry messages back and forth. The video changes to show several nerve cells against a deep-red background. The nerve cells start with a small black dot, surrounded by an orange oval that is surrounded by yellow dashes. Surrounding those parts is a larger oval with nine protrusions that branch out around it, one of which is a tail-like structure. The tail is intermittently covered with seven cream-colored cylindrical shapes. The tail ends in a branch-like structure protruding out of one of the cylinders. The video zooms in on one of the nerves, and the label “nerve cells (neurons)” appears in the lower-right corner of the screen. The video changes to show a silhouette of the tops of telephone poles with the telephone wires connecting from pole to pole. TIM: Kind of like telephone wires. TIM: When you touch something, a neuron is stimulated. The video shows a blue structure on the right of the screen, and then a finger comes in from the left of the screen and pokes the blue structure. A small starburst appears where the finger is touching the structure. The starburst rapidly expands and contracts, or pulsates. TIM: That neuron generates a tiny electrical impulse. This impulse travels the full length of the neuron. The video changes to show a close-up of one of the neurons. The same starburst is pulsating over the head of the neuron, and the starburst moves down the length of the tail of the neuron until it reaches the final branching section. TIM: When it gets to the end, it needs help getting across the gap to the next neuron. That's where chemicals called neurotransmitters jump in. The video zooms in on the tail end of two neurons with a small gap between them, and the starburst still pulsates on the end of the previous neuron. The starburst has a pulsating white cloud around it. The label “neurotransmitters” appears in the lower-left corner of the screen. TIM: The electrical pulse in the first cell releases chemicals that carry that impulse to the next cell. The video shows the starburst travelling from the branch of the first neuron to a branch on the tail end of another neuron. The starburst then travels down the branch of that neuron. TIM: The signal travels through the network to your brain. The video returns to the silhouette of the upper half of the human body. The starburst travels from the bottom of one of the arms and up to the brain, where it continues pulsating. TIM: Mmm. The video changes to show Tim and Moby standing side by side in the room. Moby pokes Tim in the head again. TIM: You don’t have to touch something to put the nervous system to work. It’s up and running all the time. TIM: The nervous system actually works in two ways. The autonomic nervous system handles all the things that seem to happen on their own, like your heart beating. The video changes to show a human heart. The label “autonomic” appears in the lower-right corner of the screen. The heart starts expanding and contracting. TIM: The somatic nervous system controls voluntary actions like talking or petting your cat. The video changes to show a gray cat against a dark-blue background. An arm extends from the right side of the screen and pets the cat. The label “somatic” appears in the upper-left corner of the screen. TIM: When you touch something hot, it triggers a reflex action that happens without your brain’s help. The video changes to show a pot of liquid cooking on a stovetop. A hand comes down from the top of the screen toward the hot liquid. The label “reflex” appears in the upper-right corner of the screen. The hand comes very close to the liquid. TIM: Neurons signal the spinal cord with a “pain” message. The video changes to show the silhouette of the upper half of the human body. A starburst travels from one of the arms to the spinal cord at the base of the neck. The starburst pulsates. TIM: The spinal cord reacts quickly by having muscles in your finger contract and pull away. The video returns to the pot of hot liquid, and the hand is still very close to the liquid. A large red starburst flashes around the hand, and the hand quickly recoils. TIM: Some parts of the skin have more receptors than others. That’s why your tongue is more heat sensitive than, say, your heel. The video returns to show Tim and Moby in the room. Moby pokes Tim in the side of the head again. TIM: Stop poking me! MOBY: Beep! TIM: Ha … Moby was … testing my nervous system. Look, Moby, I can’t turn off my nervous system like you can. Ha … The video shows Tim reaching up behind Moby’s back and flipping a switch. Moby’s eyes roll up in his head, his pupils disappear, and then he falls to the floor with a crashing sound. TIM: See? Your nervous system is important. 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